Built a century ago for F. Cleveland Morgan, is considered o be one of Canada's finest examples of the Arts and Crafts residential style of architecture

The gated property, listed for $8.5 million, is set back from Senneville Rd. by sweeping lawns, mature hardwood trees and formal English gardens. The stone-turreted manor has 27 rooms, including 12 bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Photograph by: Robert J. Galbraith
, The Gazette

The exclusive 1.6-hectare Morgan Estate, located along the shores of Lake of Two Mountains in the West Island community of Senneville, is being offered for sale for $8.5 million. Built in 1912 and referred to as "Le Sabot" (the boot), this waterfront property is considered to be one of Canada's finest examples of the Arts and Craft residential style of architecture.

It was built for cultural philanthropist and department store owner F. Cleveland Morgan, who was the great-nephew of the founder of the Henry Morgan and Co. department stores, locally referred to as Morgan's. (The company closed its doors in 1960 after being sold to the Hudson's Bay Co.)

David Shennan, a well-respected Scottish architect of the time, designed the Morgan estate and was also responsible for putting to paper the design for Manoir Richelieu, the Hotel Ta-doussac and the Thousand Islands Club. He also had a hand in the design of the castle-like Château Laurier in Ottawa.

With 27 rooms, including 12 bedrooms and nine bathrooms, the romantic, stone-turreted manor is having its 100th anniversary this year. Four generations of Morgans have lived in the home and still do.

This gated property is set back from Senneville Rd. by sweeping lawns, mature hardwood trees and formal English gardens - complete with a huge, rectangular lily pool. Le Sabot hearkens back to a period in our history when architectural form was trying to break free from the bounds of Victorian-era stuffiness and conformity. It was a new age of opulence, opportunity and fodder for dreamers. The year the estate was built was also the year that the world's fastest passenger liner, HMS Titanic, went down off the coast of Newfoundland on its maiden voyage, claiming 1,517 lives.

These were the times that Cleveland Morgan lived in, and this is why this estate was such a pleasure to visit - a pearl among the numerous rocks of the modernly mundane.

The exterior of the building was designed in a Georgian-Normandy-style, with its steep slate roof and two fieldstone turrets that face visitors as they first glimpse the manor. There is a circular stone dovecote (a structure for housing pigeons) on the grand lawn facing the home, a throwback to a time when many well-off country gentlemen bred the birds for racing and show.

The property at 264 Senne-ville Rd. encompasses two bedroom wings with six bedrooms, four bathrooms and three marble fireplaces in the main home. There is also a separate servants' quarters and a large four-bedroom guest annex with a towering two-storey stone fireplace and two-car garage.

There is a very large heated outdoor swimming pool overlooking the Lake of Two Mountains and Oka Village in the distance, a private tennis court, a large and impressive 14-metre-long solarium and continual waterfront views along the length of the property.

Other features include rich oak panelling, balcony views, fieldstone walls, clay floor tiles that were made in Oka of local red clay, Brazilian flooring, a library, hand-painted motifs and a lived-in ambience that wraps you in its warm shroud as soon as you enter the home.

The front entranceway has that typical Georgian-style flavour, with a wide wooden door flanked by long, rectangular glass windows, greystone steps and trim, and topped with ornamental forged iron on its mantle.

You enter the home through the grand entrance hall with rich oak furnishings and panelling, and a beautiful antique spiral staircase leading to the second storey of the three-storey domicile. The staircase was originally found in the former governor's residence at the Château de Ramezay, but after the building was partially gutted by fire, the staircase was acquired and restored by Morgan for his home. The red clay tiling is the main type of flooring found on the ground floor.

Corniced cove ceilings with fleur-de-lis and poisson motifs are found throughout the main floor. The home is built in the Central Cross-Hall plan, with living and dining rooms on each side.

The living room is well lit by numerous windows and French doors, most looking out over the lake. A handsome and classic open-hearth limestone fireplace seems to be an invitation to brew a pot of tea over its blaze. Incorporated into the space where the turret is situated is an alcove that uses the recess to show off the 19th-century grandfather clock that resides there and to let in natural sunlight from the long, rectangular windows that flank the alcove.

The dining area is a large room with a formal fireplace, panelled walls, built-in china cabinets and fine trim borders along the ceiling, doorways and baseboards.

Both the dining and living rooms open up into the northwest-facing solarium, which has incredible views of the lake and surrounding country. The solarium leads to a large terrace, English gardens and the heated in-ground pool - complete with diving board.

The land slopes downward to the shoreline of the lake and its menagerie of wildlife that find this location as attractive as Morgan would have when he first began laying out his country retreat. His principal residence was on Peel St., in the heart of downtown.

Wide oak plank floors are found throughout the two bedroom wings, on the second storey. The bedrooms are very well kept, original, and attractive and comfy. Canopied beds featuring hand-carved posts and frames blend well with the matching furnishings.

The third floor is largely occupied by Morgan's collection of artifacts, ranging from a mummified cranium to sea shells, plant pressings and numerous other curiosities that he collected during his decades of world travelling.

For 46 years, F. Cleveland Morgan was the curator of decorative arts at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, a voluntary position he loved and dedicated his life to. He acquired thousands of specimens from around the world for the museum to demonstrate the history of art.

His Senneville home is full of many examples of art and artifacts, some dating back thousands of years. Some of the art work he collected was sold at Morgan's.

There are also the hundreds of window panes that bear the names of visitors to the house - etched with a diamond-tipped pen, each made by the visitor. Some of the names include humorist Stephen Leacock, artist Clarence Gagnon and Sir John Abbott. It must have seen some great parties in its past.

In the 1960s, the Morgan family donated land to McGill University for the creation of the 240-hectare Morgan Arboretum.

With the sale of this estate, another window into the history of Montreal will be closed, but not locked to those who wish to seek it.

Cleveland Morgan's legacy is still alive and well with every dog walker or bird watcher that visits the Arboretum, or every visitor to the fine arts museum, the McCord Museum or the Redpath, among others. His was a life well lived, and his beloved "Le Sabot" heralds this life.

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The gated property, listed for $8.5 million, is set back from Senneville Rd. by sweeping lawns, mature hardwood trees and formal English gardens. The stone-turreted manor has 27 rooms, including 12 bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

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